The acronym ECR in fantasy football stands for expert consensus ranking. The expert consensus ranking is the average ranking given to a player by fantasy football experts.
For example, let’s say a player has an ECR of 12. This would mean that amongst fantasy football experts this player is ranked 12th overall on average.
This means their average draft position should be around 12th in a league’s fantasy draft.
ECR rankings rank players overall and do not break them down by position. This means if a wide receiver has an ECR 20 that means they are the 20th ranked fantasy player, not the 20th ranked receiver.
This is because ECR is primarily used when drafting in fantasy football. When it is your turn to pick it can be helpful to look at the ECRs of the remaining players.
The player with the highest ECR available is the one the fantasy experts value the most. This can be a helpful way of making some educated guesses when drafting your fantasy football team.
If you war curious about other fantasy acronyms like ECR read about what DST stands for in fantasy football.
What to know when looking at ECR
Now that you know what ECR is in fantasy football we are going to break down a few more things you should know about this stat.
League scoring
When looking at ECR make sure the rankings are based on the same scoring as your league.
For example, ECR can be based on standard scoring while some leagues play a PPR format. This means that players earn a point each time they catch a forward pass. In these leagues, players that catch a lot of short passes can be quite valuable.
This is not the case in a standard league in which yards and touchdowns are the only ways you are going to earn fantasy points from your receivers.
Make sure that the ECR you are using is based on the same scoring as your league. Otherwise, you will be valuing players based on the wrong criteria and could end up making some poor selections.
Experts aren’t always right
Another thing you should know about ECR in fantasy football is that the experts are not always right.
Even if you pick the highest ECR player with each selection you likely will not win the league. These experts are more accurate than most fantasy players but they are often wrong as well.
Take ECR with a grain of salt as not every single one of these picks is going to be correct.
I personally like to use the information gained from ECR as one piece of the puzzle but ultimately pick the players I like personally on my fantasy team.
ECR vs ADP
A very similar statistic to ECR in fantasy football is ADP. ADP in fantasy football stands for average draft position.
ADP takes fantasy draft data and averages out what pick players are primarily drafted with. If a player is taken fifth overall on average in fantasy drafts he will have an ADP of 5.
The difference between ADP and ECR in fantasy football is one of these rankings is done by experts.
ADP bases their rankings on actual fantasy football league drafts. Which is essentially the public opinion of when players should be drafted.
ECR on the other hand only takes into account fantasy experts who rank these players as a profession.
Oftentimes it is wiser to follow ECR than ADP as fantasy experts tend to be more accurate.
Using ADP and ECR to find value
One tactic that some fantasy managers use is to get value picks by comparing ECR vs ADP. If you believe that ECR is a better rankings method than ADP then you want to find take advantage of low ADP ranked players.
If a fantasy player has a high ECR but a lower ADP rank that this presents a great chance to get some value.
Similarly, if a player has a high ADP rank and a lower ECR you are likely going to have to pass on this player as a high ADP likely means you are going to have to use a high draft pick to acquire them.
That is all on ECR in fantasy football check out our guides to JAGS in fantasy football or PMR to learn more about these acronyms.
